Duffuor hits right on societal ill

Last weekend, some distinguished Ghanaian personalities were honoured. The list included a statesman, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, who has served the country in many capacities.
Dr Duffuor has served as Minister of Finance, as well as Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

A pragmatist and quiet person, Dr Duffuor has also built an empire in the private sector, mostly in financial services. His support for the underprivileged is also laudable, not to talk about his contributions to national discourse and policies.

When he was rightly crowned the Ultimate Man of the Year, the rather taciturn Dr Duffuor did not mince words on the social decay in our country of late, that fast-creeping phenomenon that the Daily Graphic has so often condemned in its editorials.

Dr Duffuor bemoaned what he called “base behaviours in both low and high places, rampant mob killings, indiscipline on our roads and in places of work, wanton destruction of our environment, corruption and mass looting of state resources”.

To drum home his observation, he likened the country’s current moral crisis to the ‘Biblical scale transgression’ when the entire Jewish nation abandoned Yahweh and decided to worship the golden calf.

The Daily Graphic thinks that Dr Duffuor’s observation that the virtue of selflessness that our forebears exhibited has completely deserted the present generation is at the heart of the moral decay we see in our society.

Citizens everywhere appear to be on the rampage, putting self-interest ahead of the collective. Indiscipline, impunity, corruption and wanton dissipation of public assets and funds have taken centre stage in every facet of society.

One does not need to go far — within the communities these unacceptable behaviours abound. Neighbours are at one another’s throat due to one wrong or another.
Once the people are corrupt and unconscionable, the institutions they manage also suffer ineffectiveness because rules are bent and regulations are side-stepped unconscientiously for personal gain.

These days integrity, as a value, is fast eroding in our public and private lives. People entrusted with positions and responsibilities cannot be relied on, as they often stoop so low for selfish interests.

The Daily Graphic wants to stress the need for the show of leadership to effect change that will reverse these deteriorating values in our society. Political leadership is key in initiating, policing and whipping up the system to reverse the moral decadence in society.

Issues of poor sanitation, examination malpractice, malfeasance in private and public institutions, poor employee attitudes and service delivery, pilferage, wanton killing and rising armed robbery are all products of the breakdown of our social conscience and moral fibre.

The Daily Graphic wants to associate itself with the call by Dr Duffuor for us to start from role models mentoring the young ones and imbuing in them values of integrity and Godliness, so that they will become trustworthy, dependable, loyal “and not deceptive”.

We believe these are the virtues that underlie every successful rich economy and the emerging economies that we so often try to emulate.

While calling on our religious leaders to rise to the occasion by speaking the unadulterated truth and teaching virtues, we equally urge institutional leaders to intrepidly approach their work with high levels of integrity and selflessness.

The Daily Graphic believes it is time for the law enforcement system to up its game and not shield but punish wrongdoers. This, we believe, will encourage compliance and a commitment to live virtuous and exemplary lifestyles.

In the end, the buck stops with the individual. Personal discipline is a virtue every Ghanaian must nurture and live by not vice. It is time to have a set of personal values built after the best practice of virtuous moral values in society.